Do you still remember the days when your neighbor, your uncle or even worse your father showed all the images stored in cardboard boxes or some of the grueling slide shows about a trip to ....

All gone now and replaced by the ubiquity of smartphones and digital cameras on the mainstream social media. A gift for the amateurs to show his naivety and a gift for me to show some explorations into different ways of dealing with images.

That's the reason you have as well to endure my postings. A simple solution - deselect what you don't want to see, otherwise have fun.

Looking back on my images in 2016 I think I did try a lot of different approaches to photography. To be not afraid of what others may think, to take the pain to be different, to be singled out can be hard. That is the reason most people are doing the same thing over and over. It takes some confidence and self-esteem to go your way.

Goethe's respect for the majority was subtle. He said the majority just consists of some influential people in the front, individuals who are pliable, weak characters who assimilate with the rest, and the crowd that trundles along behind without the slightest notion of what it’s after.

So I try not to be like everyone else. To think for me and be an individual. And doing some unique approach and work. Still, some way to go.

Masterpieces of human creativity from the 20th Century got its endorsement from Unesco in 2007. The Sydney Opera House is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. This famous building and its sail-like roofs define Sydney and Australia like other buildings their countries, for example, the pyramids Egypt, the Great Wall China and cathedrals parts of Europe.

The architect envisioned the geometric pieces as bright sails set on the Australian dark waters. An excellent opportunity to shoot at this blue hour and very blue sky.

A terrible thing you are out for an extended time to travel and your expeditions starts with rainy days. If you see this as quite unlucky (or lucky, depends on your point of view), but if it rains when you tour the city of your choosing and it rains traversing the countryside, and it rains without pity. Just turn it into an opportunity. Even if you resemble a drowned rat just grimace and face the threatening doom.

Cities can look magical in the rain. Most of the well-known destinations get its share of photographers. How to stand out? Rain can transform all numbingly familiar scenes into something fresh and different to discover.

Sure, there are problems involved. For example how to keep your camera dry, how to show rain in the pictures as rain often look dull, gray, and often nearly invisible.

Here are a few tips:

Carry a protector for your camera. For example a well-sized plastic bag. A shower cap from your hotel will help as well. Punch a hole in one end and poke the lens through, then screw the lens hood on the front.Look for dry spots, like porches, bus stops and alike and wait for the pictures to come to you. Shoot from inside a bar, coffee shop or a car. Take an umbrella along, and you can keep your camera out of the worst wetness.

Watch for reflections as it's hard to see the rain itself. You can give visual clues that it is raining. Reflections, glittering streets at night or backlight in upcoming cars, etc.

As you can read there are possibilities to take rain as a chance and with a little planning, it can be worth the effort. Once you've taken this road, you might discover that a new world of images is opening up for you.

Fashion photography is glamorous, hot, sometimes still pays well. So it is just the time to get into this photography genre. Exploring the different aspect of fashion photography means looking at high-end couture, beauty, and editorial or commercial aspects. Topics can include styling, hair and makeup, lighting, and much, much more. To learn every stage of a fashion shoot, it's a good idea to go as a kind of second shooter. You will get first information from casting to styling to In-studio and On-location lighting techniques. Not to forget about model direction, and finally, retouching, marketing, and advertising.

Whatever kind of photographer you like and whatever knowledge level you can have - something from this experience in fashion photography can be integrated into your own business.

Street photography is not a class in university. It’s not about dissecting your subjects under lab conditions. Street photography is about experiencing life, up close and personal. And where better to experience it with a lot of different opportunities than on markets.

Working on street and travel photography images made in 2016 I already have done a street photography guide this year. Now I am putting together a travel magazine. An excellent way to share my vision of India. To produce a magazine, just create enough content around a particular theme like wanderlust in India.

Several things to consider: What is the primary topic? What’s the focus of this magazine? How can you use it to tie your content together? What’s the title of this issue?

Now I have to start with writing articles, columns, and stories. The next step. Then the job in Lightroom of gathering my images. It will be more a visual medium than a written product. Great pictures will keep everyone hopefully interested and add some dimension to my articles.

For now, I already designed a cover. This cover should give you some tantalizing taste of what's inside. I don't want to give away too much.

December will be the time to assemble the content and choosing the final aesthetic for the magazine. A lot of work ahead.

Shooting with a legend: The Hasselblad 500 C/M is a bit like traveling in a Time Tunnel. I like especially the waist level experience with this camera. Bending over your camera and peering into the ground glass, seeing the image reversed left to right represents a kind of emotional pleasure that I don't get with modern gear.

Portrait near the Hanging Gardens in Mumbai

The Hasselblad is essentially the Mercedes of cameras. It was introduced in 1957 by the Victor Hasselblad AB, with optics from the famous lens maker Carl Zeiss. All specs aside, Hasselblad's are known for exceptional image quality and still a hefty price tag, but that is an investment I don't regret.

After moving around a lot, I sometimes find, to my astonishment and pleasure, some things I missed or already forgot. Finding a roll of 120mm color film and another of b/w from 1995 I got excited and took my beloved MF camera out for a stroll here in Mumbai.

structured wall and writing

Shooting handheld, I didn't get all the images I wanted, and due to the old films, the result is more like a Lomographic adventure - but a fun one.

I just ordered some new film as I got the film bug again. More to come soon.

Photography offers a fascinating window into the world of art. Seeing the world around me from different viewpoints driven by curiosity and inquiry with various tools is an excellent way to discover new creativity in myself. Sometimes there is something right in front of me that I don't see, but taking an image it is reconfigured and transformed. Like Magic!

Usually, I come across some content by following magnetic artists as seen in museums, magazines and last but not least on social media. Thus, these discoveries may unknowingly kind of burn a mix of these bunch of art in my brain. How to choose not to copy these photographs, paintings or advertisements, but to create some art of my own?

Corner window in Hong Kong with interesting reflection

How to change this natural trap? The answer is in selecting, editing d not, at last, revealing the main subject of the image. The real meaning. I try to look at my subject, then trusting my intuitions and trying out the various point of views. Trying to show what dreams and fears I can see, what motivations might lie beneath the surface. Creating an image in this way is not easy but doable. Seeing something alike and just capturing it in street photography is a matter of stubbornness, shooting a lot and a lucky smiling photographing God.

Sometimes I do the opposite what is advised. Going down blind alleys or places I don't want to be. Working hard, beeing stubborn, and eventually, I can get my ideas working. Sometimes they will show me a way to, at least in my opinion, fascinating photographs, and interesting photographs will lead to new ideas.

It is always fascinating walking through a Mega City like Mumbai and seeing the way the town and its inhabitants present themselves. Part of an enormous community like here in India there are so many things to discover and to unravel. Invading the personal space of foreigners by walking into their line of sight and holding up my registering device, digital or analog and capturing the moment is an excellent way to take on daily life.

Today my mood changed and I took a stroll along the hanging garden to make some images without any humans at all. You can feel the human input as there are walls, doors, buildings and alike, but no people to see. Coming along a stretch where the sun illuminates an entrance way the gridded structure of the walls and the shafts of light that illuminate some parts of the trees and fauna while leaving others dark captured my attention. My unintentional literal spotlight — the lighting, in this particular case, brings into focus nature in an isolating manner.

A tough question as there are thousands of answers and even more websites, magazines and information everywhere. There is certainly no easy answer.

I owned a bunch of different cameras from point and shot versions to high-end equipment. My tip today: It doesn’t matter. Take anyone - just look for one, which fits in your hand comfortably. Lately, I read a comment that a camera can be compared to a knife. Some use it to peel apples and cut vegetable some are creating statues for museums with it.

Each day and year the decision is getting tougher. Bridge cameras, Evil camera, DSLR, etc., etc. If you have the chance to have some friends with cameras ask them. Go out with them and test these different models. Go with the one that fits you the best. The one you are comfortable holding in your hand.

More than 13 major camera companies have created about 1,800 digital camera models between them, with over 100 brand-new ones. How to choose?

different choices, different taste

What do you want to shoot most?

Here some ideas to consider:

1. easily to carry around and affordable

2. short reaction time from pushing the shutter to taking the image

3. Excellent low-light capabilities if you shoot a lot of indoors at family gatherings.

4. If shooting people a zoom up to 200mm is a good choice as you can blur everything out behind your subjects.

old or new

All in all most of the gear in the price range from 500 to 700 USD are quite well, and each has its ad- or disadvantage. Remember that the camera body is just one thing a good lens is much more important and last longer as well for the next camera body if you grade up in some years.

It is like going out to eat. So many restaurants and diners, so many choices, but at least you'll find something just for your taste. Just try different ....

Due to different regional changes, there are and have been many different forms of theaters in China. Each of this form is serving its individual purpose. At the southern Chinese theater, Cantonese Opera found in the provinces of Guangzhou, Guangxi, Macau and last but not least in Hong Kong, is one of the primary forms. Taking part and detecting every time new nuances is an excellent way to learn something as well how to taking images in different ways.

There is thousand and one way to enhance your creativity and better your photography. It seems as if everything has been done before and that might be entirely true. But there is always something coming up either with an old idea in a new dress or some new angle, new technical possibility or an ingenious idea.

Be it old news or new ideas - try out whatever you come up with photography to get a better grasp how to do it, what to use, what gear and last but not least implement inspiration from other arts as well.